Blogging Wired.com: The Environmentalism of Wall-E

According to Wired writer Brandon Keim, "The decade's most powerful environmental film doesn't star Al Gore or Greenpeace activists, but a trash-compacting, Hello Dolly-loving robot with a cockroach for a best friend."

Keim goes on to analyze the movie's environmental message, delivered through a charming story about a cute robot who is Earth's only inhabitant, left behind to clean up a planet literally heaping with garbage while Earth's former denizens loll about -- lazy, bloated, and stupid -- inside off-planet "consumer cocoons." As heavy-handed as the message sounds, Pixar has apparently denied that the movie has any such environmentalist leanings.

Keim mentions Pixar's disavowal in the same breath that he uses to point out the ironic fact that Wall-E will no doubt be subject to the same heavy-handed product tie-ins for which Disney (Pixar's parent company) is famous.

But even if its bubble-wrapped tie-ins end up clogging our great-grandchildren's landfills, Wall-E's point is no less potent. And if your kids want Wall-E toys, buy them a planter and some seeds.

We have to confess that we haven't yet seen Wall-E (a new baby slows you down that way), though we're keen to, especially after hearing it lauded as one of the most Oscar-worthy films of the year. If you've seen it, did the alleged environmental message come through to you?